Northern Irish WAGs withdraw their players from internationals

Former Northern Ireland manager Lawrie Sanchez has revealed he used to await phone calls from players’ WAGs withdrawing their partners from his international squads. Sanchez voiced his frustration at watching his plans disintegrate as he awaited calls from anyone but the player.
He said: “I must admit the Saturday before meeting up on a Sunday I sat by your phone and I used to make the players phone me direct. Before they used to use their agent, their girlfriend, their physio. They used to phone the secretary up and say ‘sorry I can’t make it’.

“So I gave all the players my number and told them to phone me direct and tell me if they can’t make it. One or two didn’t want to do that, who might have thought about phoning the secretary and pulling out of the game, so I had to sit at home from 5pm on a Saturday till about 10pm at night with my phone on.”

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